The Bloody Wind - down the west coast

We arrived in Carnarvon after driving into a head wind all the way - see if you can guess the prevailing wind with the trees above (this was taken along the main street in Carnarvon).

Irene and Brian (Hallett) were already in the park and after we arrived Judi and Brian (Moodie) and another two couples we had met at Coral Bay showed up - great to see everyone again. Carnarvon has a one mile pier - Brian, Brian and Peter almost froze one night when they braved the wind and cold to go fishing. They all came home mutterring about being mad going there, the wind was horrible and the surf was crashing against the botto m of the decrepit old pier (which had no side rails). We did manage to have a good lunch of prawns and crab at the Hacienda Shack at boat harbor (we bought these no thanks to the hunter gatherers )- other than that nothing exciting about the place.

The Hallets left a day early as they had employment prospects in Geraldton..

At the park they had a lawn bowling green, so to pass the time and to have some fun we had a bowling tournament. Brian Moodie and Peter were the eventual champions - something we all heard about for a while. It did bring out many styles of bowling and lets just say that we could all do with a few lessons.

After two days we were off to Shark Bay - a world heritage area. We travelled part of the way with the Moodies (Brian and Judi) and first thing in the morning it was like travelling through Jurrassic Park - Kangaroos, Goats, Emus, cows and camels all making an appearance by the roadside. The Moodies continued to Geraldton while we turned off the Denham - this has probably been the only mistake we have made all trip.

At Denham the wind was blowing so hard that we could not put the awning out and if we could we would have had to hire a kanga hammer to put the pegs in with - the ground was so hard! Again the advertising blerb let us down.

There was one area, Eagle Bluff which we enjoyed - it was a boardwalk which went over the edge of the cliff and when you looked down you saw manta rays, sharks and there was a lovely coffee place where we relaxed and looked out to the Indian Ocean. As for Monkey Mia -we think it is so overated and not eally worth the effort. We had intended to stay a few days in this area but after two (and that was too long) we decided to go to Geraldton. On the way we stopped off at Hamelin Pool and had a look at the Stromatalites, Shell Beach (made up entirely of very small shells) and the shell beach quarry - they make most walls at Denham out of these bricks they cut.

About the same time we were leaving there was agroup of Boat People arriving illegally - we reckon they can have the place.

Once again a head wind all the way to Geraldton - our friends were already there and Irene had told us what site we wanted. It was so good to see them again and we were welcomed with dinner supplied for us that night. The wind was also blowing at Geralton but in comparision to Shark Bay it was a gentle breeze!

The park was right on the beach, so it was good to be able to walk down and have a look at the sunset with a glass of vino. We found Geraldton an interesting place, the memorial for HMAS Sydney is pretty special and the port is very busy - at times there was no less that 8 ships waiting or in port - minerals, iron ore, wheat and livestock. Plus there were some very pretty places around the area - Kalbarri (up north), Port Gregory (with a pink lake) and Greenough, Dongera and Port Denison down south.

This area is one of the main crayfishing areas but they are also doing it tough at the moment with number of pots reduced and the weather has not been kind to the early catches (too cold apparently). Judy and I are still waiting to see a decent sized cray that would make good eating although we did have a beautiful seafood meal on our trip to Dongarra. One of the things that facinated me was that you have the coast, sand dunes and then the wheat paddocks start (so close to the ocean) plus fine merino wool is grown - so much farmland so close to the water!

The seven of us set ourselves up very well in the park and Tim the toolman (Brian Hallett) and his assistant Frank Spencer (Peter) kept themselves busy doing some maintence jobs on the van. We were never too sure what they would be up to next! Peter also received a surprise when a sattelite dish arrived for installation (an early christmas present) - so he is now right for TV wherever we are. Thanks again to Brian for organising and installing it for me. It was also about this time that an opportunity arose and we decided to upgrade the car. The Territory had done a great job but we want to continue to travel - so we took the plunge and now have a Nissan Patrol Ti (3 litre Turbo Diesel).

We also managed to witness an interesting event with the moon, venus and jupiter - and managed to capture the smiley face.

While in Geraldton we took the opportunity to see the film Australia - the best bit was seeing some of the places we had been to in the Kimberleys - none of us thought we would rush out and see the film again.

The others also decided that they had better look for work - Irene and Brian gained work in Geraldton, and Judi and Brian took employment at the van park in Jurien Bay. Before everyone separated we decided to have a final meal together - but we made it christmas dinner. We had the full meal, with decorated van, secret santa and other surprise presents - a great night had by all.

We spent 17 days in Geralton, and probably enjoyed ourselves more, particularly because of the company - we still keep in contact with the others and believe that we have made lifelong friendships - we had many a good laugh, good meal and Brian and Peter even managed to catch a couple of whiting from the beach - which they enjoyed for breakfast. So funny that 7 people and in the group there are 2 Irene's, 2 Brians, 2 Judy's and one Peter - not often that would happen.

We have had a thought about changing Australias national faunal symbol fromthe roo and emu to the mighty ant. Those little bastards have annoyed us all around Australia at every stop and ar totally resistent to every chemical thrown at them. It is not at all uncommon to find them crawling along a narrow twig or up a rope to get into the van and once inside they go everywhere.

Waving goodbye and a little sad we set off for Perth and our first stop was going to be Jurien Bay. This was a very pretty place but again the wind was pretty fierce. We did however travel to Cervantes to see the Pinnacles - these are just fantastic, there are so many of them and they are facinating - very hard to describe and so many different sizes without any vegetation around.

We had initially intended to stay there about 5 days - catch up with Judi and Brian, do day trips to the Pinnacles at Cerventes but.....we found the wind just too much to handle so after finding out we could go the park in Perth a couple of days earlier we decided to do that. It also gave us a few more days to organise ourselves for Christmas.

So 20 December after 22,000kms we arrived in Perth.